It's getting tough out there. Feeling the pinch?

London_1

The steak was delicious, and tasted even better for the fact it cost me 2p a mid week steak evening meal I felt almost affluent  

RobM99 well done on getting a bargain, i don't eat them , but I have noticed how expensive they have become. I think today we have all become extremely eagle-eyed when it comes to shopping ,and I know i do my best to get the most value for money that I can.

I usually meet my eldest DD on Tuesdays at lunchtime as she works next door to Asdas, and they are doing a great deal of soup,soft roll and a tea or coffee for pensioners for a pound in their cafe at the moment, so lunch was a quid for me and I must say their tomato soup was excellent and very good value for lunch with a soft roll and butter and a huge mug of coffee.
There were a good few pensioners in there enjoying a reasonable lunchtime treat.  

Afterwards DD and I had a quick look around as she had to get some stuff for her office,(she suppies the lasses that work for her with tea, coffee and a few goodies) she went to buy some instant coffee
I think it was Nescafe in a soft foil packet and she is a generous lass and not short of cash, and when we went o pay it came up at £6.50 and she said no way was she forking out that sort of cash for instant coffee.

She was rather taken aback as apparently about 6 weeks ago the same packet was under £4.00. Bless her she said I'll go elsewhere and research a better price.

 Now my eldes DD has never been one to notice prices much in the past few years as she has a very well paid job and is not short of a shilling, but it was the outrageous price increase that floored her.I just looked at her and said haven't you noticed prices rising sweetheart. She said no, not really, as normally her husband is happy to get their shopping, and she only usually shops for odds and ends for the staff in the office..

I think she was truly taken aback at how it had risen so quickly in such a short time. She knows I'm a canny shopper and doesn't worry that I would go short, but she kept saying 'How on earth do shops manage to justify charging those sorts of increases' . How indeed. This morning cost of living increases are over 11% make you wonder how people will cope this winter.

JackieO  

RobM99

One way consumers are ripped off (imho) is small packs that cost not a lot. But when you multiply them up...

Crisps - £24 a kilo!
Cat treats - £60 a kilo!
Popcorn £55 a kilo!  They all come in 50g packets (or so) for a tempting 99p-ish.

Siebrie

All this makes me very happy that I insisted on buying a house with a decent sized south-facing garden 12 years ago, and that I live in Belgium where most salaries are part of an automatic indexation, which means that as soon as the 'index' (a list of everyday products) has gone up a certain percentage, the salaries follow.

London_1

RobM99 when you think about it £24 for a kilo of crisp and maybe made with at most a couple of kilos of spuds,no wonder Mr Lineker is always smiling. 2 kilos of spuds around £1.25-30  thats a great deal of profit
Just as well be selling fresh air tinned

Perhaps one of the reasons I don't eat crisps, as my late Mum pointed out to my eldest brother years ago when he brought a bag home for my middle brother and I to share.
Smiths Crisps with a tiny blue twist of salt in them cost I think about 2d ,or (1P) and she said 'probably not even a quarter of a potato in that bag son, your wasting your money' This was back in the early 1950s .Never forgot my old Mums words 

JackieO xx

tooldle

Crisps are made from a few very specific types of potato, none of which you'd want to use for your mash, boiling or roasting. 

Zint

Posting as a newbie on here but I have been disgusted by the rise in price of one product in particular. I have always been a big fan of Primula cheese spreads, the stuff that comes in a tube, as it’s great breakfast food spread on toast.

in June it retailed at £1 for a tube. Today it retails at £1.85. I wrote to the manufacturers to seek and explanation as follows

‘Dear Colleague,

I have been a huge fan of your cheese spreads. Back in June a tube of spread was retailing for £1 in my local supermarket. It now retails for £1.85. How can you justify this horrendous price increase? Production costs can’t have increased by that much.’

I got the following response
’ Thank you for getting in touch with us, and for being a supporter of Primula.

 

Unfortunately, the price at which Primula Cheese is sold is largely out of our control – it's set by the individual retailers themselves. Whilst we have tried to minimise price increases for loyal customers, several unavoidable costs have led to higher regular selling prices in some stores. We do, however, believe that the price of Primula remains very competitive within the cheese market and hope you can continue to enjoy our products.

 

You may be interested to know that all Primula profits support good causes, including communities that are most in need. So, every tube that you purchase supports good causes. To learn more about how Primula supports good causes, please visit 

 

I hope this helps and if I can be of further assistance, please get back in touch.’

I replied back explaining that universally, the price across all supermarket chains appears fixed at £1.85. It seems more than coincidental and that as a result I’ve stopped purchasing.

I’m retired, on a fixed income, but at the very least I think that if we challenge organisations for unjustified price increases they may think twice about excess profiteering. By my estimate, if the price continues to rise at the rate it has since June a tube will be almost £3. Ridiculous.

elsien

Showing as £1.60 in Iceland, plus your 10% pensioner discount if you go on a Tuesday. Still gone up a lot but possibly marginally more affordable? Are you aware of the trolley app? That will let you know when the price drops in the different supermarkets. 

tooldle

I came across this paper a while ago Mapping energy consumption in food manufacturing - ScienceDirect, which dates from 2019. Sharing for those who might be interested. With highly processed products there is a lot to unpick in terms of cost. 

YoungBlueEyes

Ooh interesting. Thanks @tooldle 🙂

EssexHebridean

YorksLass said:

RobM99 said:

My test results were also negative. Problem was it was an intelligence test!

Ah, I didn't have one of those!  But Nursie did ask if I had memory problems.  Not yet - as far as I know.  

Bargain of the month indeed, Jackie - enjoy!

My Dad always threatened to respond to this with "how would I know?!" - to my knowledge he always resisted the temptation, though! 

I'm pretty sure that the T's and C's for T's online shopping at least have always stipulated that the prices charged are as at time of delivery by the way. Others may know differently though - it's not something I use really, I'm just remembering from when I had to do a C&C shop earlier in the year. 

And yes - Trolley confirms another increase in the cost of milk, I see - MrEH's 4-pinter will cost us an additional 10p this week then. Butter still seems to be holding at £1.99 other than in Asd@ though - presumably because they're not part of the price-fixing...sorry, "matching" game that some of the others are playing.  As for crisps - they're a non-negotiable in our house as we both really enjoy them and thankfully we can afford to buy them. Realistically it doesn't make any practical sense to try to break down food like that into the perceived cost of it's parts either IMO - there is a huge amount more to a bag of crisps than just "potatoes" for a start - I wonder how cheaply most people could make crisps of equivalent taste and longevity for? You might as well say that cheese is expensive because "it's just milk!" (Note - cheese is also a non-negotiable in my world!)